other, one of youghoort, and the third a supply of freshbaked bread of the country; two wooden spoons were placed for our use, and the eyes of a dozen peasants assembled around were riveted upon us. The dogs, which always assail the stranger most fiercely with their barking,lay asleep by our side, acknowledging us as the guests of their kind masters. The cow, which is here but little larger than the dogs, was being milked; and on the broken columns and stones piled around sat our hostesses, while their husbands were on the ground still nearer. Among them were five or six children, each most picturesquely and classically dressed. I cannot help again noticing the close resemblance of the costume of the women to the ancient statues: the hair is worn long and braided round the head; one old woman of the party had it tied in a knot to the top of the forehead, exactly as I have seen represented in the antique. Their arms had each the simple armlet or bracelet of gold; sometimes two or three on one wrist, and always a fibula of silver or gold to hold together the loose tunic or shirt; the upper jacket is embroidered most richly; the trowsers, extremely loose, and confined at the ankle, are generally red, blue, or white, and often ornamented with silver embroidery or spangles; those before us were only worked with coloured silks. The people here are Chinganees, or gipsies, as I noticed when in this district before; they therefore show their faces, and are not so secluded as the Turkish women generally. A child presenting me with a flower, gave me an opportunity of substantially acknowledging my obligation for this. true hospitality: the whole scene to me was most pleasing. It is delightful to meet with so simple and naturally kind a people, apparently devoid of any prejudice against those thought to be so opposed to themselves in every opinion. 328 CHAPTER XIX. DISCOVERY OF SIDYMA.-ITS TOMBS.-TEMPLES.-NATURAL HISTORY.- OBELISK.ANCIENT INSCRIPTION UPON OBELISK. SCULPTURES.-HARPIES.CHARIOTS.-ANIMALS.-PROCESSIONS. TOMB. — CUSTOMS – CUSTOMS OF THE PEASANTS. April 15th.-Leaving Minara, we travelled towards the south-west, over a range of wooded hills separating our little valley from another as beautiful. These recesses or bays from the valley of the Xanthus are particularly rich, and might be productive; they are in a better state of cultivation than most parts of this country. The lands have a gradual inclination down to the valley, and are screened on either side by the wooded hills protruding from the range of the Cragus. As a type of the general character of the vegetation we passed, I will describe the first of these bays after our leaving Minara. The whole valley has probably been, like the hills above, covered with underwood, and a track through them has been the road we have followed. In order to cultivate the land, the underwood has all been burnt or grubbed up, leaving on either side of the way a belt of vegetation, to form fences to the fields. These hedges are therefore not of one description, but vary at every bush, and mingle wildly together, producing at this season a beauty and luxuriance which regales all the senses. The predominant shrub is the myrtle, and the next the small prickly oak; with these 1 are mingled the pomegranate, the orange, wild olive, oleander, and the elegant gum-storax; these are matted together by the vine, clematis, asparagus: in the fields are left standing, for their shade as well as their fruit, the carob, the fig, and the oak. Barley is the principal produce of the fields at this season, but the old stems of the maize show the second crop of the last year. A few huts in the centre of this valley give the name of Yakabalyer to the plain also. Another valley further on our way, in which stands Kestép, is more wooded, appearing, as we ascended through a forest of fir-trees on the hill of separation, one wood of splendidly grown oaks; they are the Quercus Egilops, which is here a considerable source of wealth from its acorns, called by the Smyrna merchants Velanéa; the timber would, if wanted for the market, be of high value. On entering a third of these valleys, called, from its village, Guilemet, we turned up a ravine to the west, leading directly into the midst of the Cragus range; this was about ten miles from Minara. Gradually ascending for nearly two hours, we arrived at the village of Tortoorcar, where we sought the remains of an ancient city, but were told that high in the mountains above us were the ruins, and within them was the village of Tortoorcar Hissá. We climbed for more than an hour up a steep, quite unfit for horses, when we found ourselves amidst the splendidly-built tombs of an unknown city of the ancient Greeks. The inscriptions soon told the name of this city to have been Sidyma, and the style of its architecture led me to assign to it a date purely Greek, but by no means so early as that of Pinara or any of the cities more marked by the Lycian peculiarities. In this city we saw no Cyclopean walls, and none of that other extreme of art, differing in all points but its simplicity, the sculpture accompanying the Lycian inscriptions. I saw only one ornamented tomb in the rocks, and but two or three of the gothic-formed sarcophagi: one of these was inscribed with Greek characters. I obtained but few inscriptions out of the very many on the tombs, on account of the perished state of the surface of the marble in this elevated situation. The extreme cost of ornament, and the great size of the tombs standing on stoas fitted for temples, surprised me much; they were like the tombs of a large city which had disappeared; but the city remained to show its original extent, which was very small; its agora, theatre, and other buildings were indeed almost too small to be recognized as suitable to the purposes of the public meetings of the people of a city. Several square buildings, not larger than many of the tombs, have evidently been temples; the scale and beauty |